Yes, the first performance of Cage's Silence was 4'33".
Some years later, an LP (long playing version) came out that was, I think, 20' long!
But true, if you know how to listen, the Silence is infinite, eternal.
The Tibetans have a saying, 'All sounds are mantra, all sights are mandala."
And in the Song of Solomon, it is written, "I sleep but my heart is awake." I like to read that as, "I sleep, but my heart is still singing."
By the way, in order to "hear' the Silence, in the Indian tradition, mantra is often used.
Tibetan Buddhist teacher (and Irish Catholic!) Loch Kelly does a nice little exercise where you use the mantra "Blah."
So you hear "Blah" "blah" "blah" slowly, noticing the silent space in between the words. At first "Blah" is in the foreground and you hardly notice the spacious silence. Then you wait longer and longer until the silent space is foreground and the only purpose of "blah" is to keep your mind from wandering. Eventually this becomes so familiar that at any point in the day, with the slightest shift, you simply "remember to be" and the Silence, infinite, boundless, within which all is occurring, is right here, and all of life becomes a song that God is singing.
Jan (my wife) and I are planning to hit the streets of Asheville this summer. If you ever take a trip down here, you’ll have to play and sing with us - the corner of Wall Street and Battey Park Avenue is where we plan to set up. Jan will be reading poetry, I’ll be accompanying, and we’ll be inviting people to sing as well (and I’ll do solo keyboard also).
Ohhh... I love this in more ways than I can express (yes....a fellow musician!)
Last year, I came across a passage in Paulo Coelho's novel, The Witch of Portobello, that stunned me, and which I feel describes a "universe" where any aspiring musician (and everyone else actually) needs to dwell, to transcend the noise of the world, perhaps like a Zen koan?
"...the moment when a note of music ends and the next one has not yet begun.."
Yes, the first performance of Cage's Silence was 4'33".
Some years later, an LP (long playing version) came out that was, I think, 20' long!
But true, if you know how to listen, the Silence is infinite, eternal.
The Tibetans have a saying, 'All sounds are mantra, all sights are mandala."
And in the Song of Solomon, it is written, "I sleep but my heart is awake." I like to read that as, "I sleep, but my heart is still singing."
By the way, in order to "hear' the Silence, in the Indian tradition, mantra is often used.
Tibetan Buddhist teacher (and Irish Catholic!) Loch Kelly does a nice little exercise where you use the mantra "Blah."
So you hear "Blah" "blah" "blah" slowly, noticing the silent space in between the words. At first "Blah" is in the foreground and you hardly notice the spacious silence. Then you wait longer and longer until the silent space is foreground and the only purpose of "blah" is to keep your mind from wandering. Eventually this becomes so familiar that at any point in the day, with the slightest shift, you simply "remember to be" and the Silence, infinite, boundless, within which all is occurring, is right here, and all of life becomes a song that God is singing.
Here is a song I wrote about this: https://soundcloud.com/don-salmon-978341981/remember-to-be
And here is Loch's 4 minute animated guidance for the "blah" mantra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkP1-lin590
Great additions, TY. Love that musicians so readily relate to these ideas!
Jan (my wife) and I are planning to hit the streets of Asheville this summer. If you ever take a trip down here, you’ll have to play and sing with us - the corner of Wall Street and Battey Park Avenue is where we plan to set up. Jan will be reading poetry, I’ll be accompanying, and we’ll be inviting people to sing as well (and I’ll do solo keyboard also).
https://www.remembertobe.life/mindful-poetry-59
Amazing writing and very thoughtful ideas, I love it.
I wrote a song a while ago which has a chorus that goes "The earth is dancing / the sky is singing / the light within your mind is bringing love"
This really reminded me of it
TY! Was it ever recorded?
Yes it was 😊🙏🏽
https://sweetmedicine1.bandcamp.com/track/let-the-drum-tell-you
https://soundcloud.com/sweet_medicine/let-the-drum-tell-you
Ohhh... I love this in more ways than I can express (yes....a fellow musician!)
Last year, I came across a passage in Paulo Coelho's novel, The Witch of Portobello, that stunned me, and which I feel describes a "universe" where any aspiring musician (and everyone else actually) needs to dwell, to transcend the noise of the world, perhaps like a Zen koan?
"...the moment when a note of music ends and the next one has not yet begun.."
Nice...:)